Latino High School Graduation

Socioeconomic status, ethnicity, culture, and immigration: Examining the potential mechanisms underlying Mexican-origin adolescents' organized activity participation.

“…It will be important for researchers to further examine the two groups of youth who do not participate: (a) youth who currently do not participate in an activity but have participated in the past, and (b) youth who have never participated in an organized activity. Studies with Latino and non-Latino samples have shown that some adolescents who participate in organized activities have spells during which they are not participating in an activity (e.g., the sport season ended) or experience short-term barriers that limit their current participation (e.g., Fredricks et al, 2002; Romo & Falbo, 1996). Yet, it is unclear if the barriers or circumstances experienced by youth who have participated in an organized activity at one time point generalize to youth who have never participated in an organized activity.…”

“…Accumulating evidence suggests that Latino adolescents' participation in high-quality organized activities is associated with their positive well-being (for a review, see Fredricks & Simpkins, in press). Participating in organized out-of-school activities, which include community-based programs (e.g., YMCA) and school-based extracurricular activities (e.g., football team), is associated with Latino adolescents' academic achievement, ethnic identity, and self-esteem (e.g., Davalos, Chavez, & Guardiola, 1999; Ream & Rumberger, 2008; Riggs, Bohnert, Guzman, & Davidson, 2010; Romo & Falbo, 1996). Recent research suggests that there is great variability among Mexican-origin adolescents in terms of their participation (Simpkins, O'Donnell, Delgado, & Becnel, 2011).…”

Understanding Academic Attitudes and Achievement in Mexican-Origin Youths: Ethnic Identity, Other-Group Orientation, and Fatalism.

“…The idea that fatalistic beliefs may become an obstacle in this environment should be perceived more as a cultural mismatch than a deficit. Furthermore, the U.S. educational school system itself may exacerbate fatalistic beliefs and contribute to underachievement in this population (Romo & Falbo, 1996; Valencia, 2002; Valenzuela, 1999). There is evidence in the literature demonstrating the connection between fatalistic beliefs and poorer academic attitude (Cabrera, 1963; Justin, 1970) and performance (Matute-Bianchi, 1986) in Mexican-origin adolescents, but a connection between a quantitatively measured fatalism variable and school-reported GPA was not explored in these studies.…”

Creating Powerful High Schools for Immigrant and English Language Learning Populations: Using past and Present Ideas in Today's Schooling Paradigm

“…Considering the already-high dropout rate of immigrant Latinos and ELLs, this finding suggests that these students schooled within this new paradigm will continue to drop out of high school at alarming rates. However, this trend is not new, considering Romo and Falbo's (1996) findings that, in the early days of high-stakes accountability in Texas, the TAAS test in Texas (now called TAKS-Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) was often a roadblock to graduation for Latino students (both U.S. born and immigrant). Most recently, Her's (2010) ethnographic study of an urban school serving significant numbers of Latino and Southeast Asian students also found that an emphasis on high-stakes testing negatively impacted the academic lives of such immigrant and ELL students.…”

“…Low teacher expectations and tacit beliefs exist about ELLs, namely, that they do not want to (or cannot) attend college (Layzer, 2000). Programmatic and curriculum obstacles make it virtually impossible to reach graduation (Romo & Falbo, 1996) or be adequately prepared for the possibility of college by continually tracking and segregating students in ineffective ESL classes (Cortina, 2009;Faltis & Arias, 2007). Other issues involve a blatant disregard for language and culture as assets (Michael, Andrade, & Bartlett, 2007;Valenzuela, 1999), lack of teacher preparation specifically in working with Latino and Asian ELLs (Gándara & Contreras, 2009;Ima, 1995), along with the inability to adopt a genuine sense of caring for the well-being and potential success of their immigrant and ELLs (Valenzuela, 1999).…”